Friday, January 26, 2007

Bookish

I came home last night to the smell of baking brownies. The embroidered cloth I bought in Budapest was on the table, along with a stack of the best dishes and the silver epergne full of baby roses.

Dolores was in the kitchen, pulverizing a pile of avocados into fresh guacamole.

"This is a pleasant surprise," I said. "Is it by any chance a...belated birthday dinner? Hmmmm?"

"Book group," said Dolores, tossing a pinch of salt into the bowl.

"You joined a book group?"

"No, I started a book group. You think I can sit around with the sock yarn all day watching Nickelodeon? I pulled out Catullus the other night just for shits and grins and realized my subjunctives are slipping. I need stimulation, cupcake."

"Did your batteries go dead again?"

"Vulgarity is not appreciated. Now get out of the way so I can mix the sangria."

"How many people are coming?"

"Just three of us. It's only our first meeting. I put up a sign in the laundry room but this building is full of Philistines. So we got Harry, Mrs. Teitelbaum, and me."

"She's not bringing Tinkles, is she? Harry's still got that twitch in his eye."

"Of course not. How could Tinkles read the book? He's a cat."

"Oh. Of course."

I went into the bedroom to change clothes. Harry was reading quietly on the chair in the corner.

"Good book?" I asked.

"I think so," he said. "I don't understand all of it. But Dolores says if I expand my mind it will give me greater range as an actor."

"How true."

"Also she said being smart is a great way to pick up guys."

"Did she really?"

"Yeah. Like, she said if it weren't for your brain being kind of big you'd get about as much action as a shy cloistered nun with a suspicious rash."

An hour later, the Coven of Intellectuals convened in the living room while I sat nearby spinning the last of Rabbitch's merino. Dolores, naturally, took the lead.

"I think we should begin by discussing our initial reactions to the work," she said. "For example, I found it to be a profoundly moving exegesis of the female mind, and a testament to the power of exploring the depths of one's own soul. Mrs. Teitelbaum, what did you think?"

"I don't understand what it had to do with airplanes," said Mrs. Teitelbaum.

Dolores rolled her eyes.

"Well," said Mrs. Teitelbaum, "it's called Fear of Flying."

"That's a metaphor," said Dolores.

"What's a metaphor?" said Harry.

"It's when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly," said Mrs. Teitelbaum.

"Harry!" I said, jumping up from the spinning wheel, "How about we go in the other room and have a brownie and I'll read you the next chapter of My Friend Flicka?"

"Yay!" shouted Harry, rolling off the sofa.

"Is the meeting over?" asked Mrs. Teitelbaum vaguely.

"Yeah," said Dolores. "We're adjourned. Here, take some guacamole home with you. Shalom."

She shoved our neighbor out the door and pulled her coat out of the hall closet.

"Where are you off to?"

"I gotta go buy batteries."Welcome to My Library

It's been very bookish in the apartment lately, quite aside from Dolores's attempt to establish herself as the kultur maven of Lake Park Plaza.

I've been a bibliomaniac literally for as long as I can remember. The first gifts I can recall were books. My earliest memories of my parents involve bedtime stories. And I'm told that as a toddler I used to smack our patient German Shepherd, Sandy, with The Poky Little Puppy and command, "Read!" My appetite for a good yarn is far older than my appetite for good yarn.

My personal library has grown like a bed of mushrooms since the first pile of Little Golden Books landed next to the crib. Now, I'm not one of those people who never gets rid of books once I own them. I have a strict schedule of two cullings a year, spring and fall, during which deadwood is ruthlessly removed. But I usually get rid of three or four books each time. In a given month, I usually acquire five or six. Or ten.

Get the picture?

I've never counted or catalogued them, until now. That nice Brenda Dayne, hostess of Cast On, mentioned librarything.com many episodes back and I was intrigued. I opened an account and am slowly working my way to the finish line, enjoying the process of handling every book individually. I estimate that I'm a bit less than half done.

Tips: If you choose Display Style "D" you'll see my comments, where I record marginalia, inscriptions, or other aspects of the book. And if you search for the tag "beloved," you'll pull up the list of volumes dearest to my heart.

Also: No liquids, no cigarettes, anything before 1850 must be handled with gloves, and you will be frisked at the door before you leave. I understand Book Lust all too well.

And Finally

Many, many thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes and comments. It was good day. I am happy to be alive. And I am so happy you are all out there.

70 comments:

That is such a great idea! My husband and I never get rid of books (our bookcases are groaning) and it would be so nice to go through all of them. Now that I think about it, my yarn-stashing behavior was probably honed through years of book-stashing!

Thank you Franklin for showing us another wonderful idea to use in our own lives. I will be happily stacking and re-stacking my books this weekend in preparation for listing them in Booklibrary!! And may i be the first to wish you an utterly wonderful birtday - and more more like it or far better!!!! Perhaps Delores is actually planning a surprise party for you.....

You will understand then how it is that I went to our local drum-up-funds-for-the-library sale and came home with...ahem...70 books. And read them all. And bought 50 more the next time. I have a problem.

The sad thing is that when I bought the 70 books I didn't have room in my bookcases for them so I drove around with them in my trunk for, oh, I don't know, two months. On the positive side, I always had something to read close at hand. (Seriously. I finished a book at TMK's one time, went out to the trunk in my PJ's, grabbed another book, and headed happily back into the house.)

The most painful thing I ever did while moving was toss two moving boxes of books into the paper trash. That was nearly 7 years ago and it still hurts to think about it. But there was no way I could take them. It was books or clothes and furniture, like e.g. the playpen, and my only table.I still don't know the full extent of what I tossed, it was mainly things I bought myself when I was a teenager (like the entire Anne of Greengables series, Hardcover! argh argh argh, 20DM per book and I only got 5DM pocketmoney per week....) right now I have one bookcase which is nearly full. Almost everything's paperback. I will probably never throw a book away again.

I should probably sit down and do the Library Thing thing myself. We're rapidly running out of space for books, and some culling needs to be done. That said, my hands are acting up and sidelining the knitting for a bit, so maybe I'll actually have a chance to get caught up on some reading.

Would you ask Delores if I can join the book club, please? I'll bring some killer artichoke spread and some slushies. I expect Mrs. Teitelbaum wouldn't mind if you and Harry hung out at her place til we're done.

As a librarian and a knitter, your post did my heart very good. Books and yarn are both fun to play with and also look picturesque around the house. Decorators have already discovered books as a design element. Fiber can't be far behind!

I was watching "Never Mind the Buzzcocks" (UK music quiz show) t'other night, and I'm *sure* I saw Dolores (or maybe a Dolores wannabe) on rather intimate terms with Geri Halliwell. 'Twas in a clip of GH's video for a song called "Ride It". At first I thought it couldn't possibly be the lovely Dolores, but with all the talk of batteries and such, I'm getting a sneaking suspicion it might be her after all...

I would think you are amazed, or perhaps a better word is bewildered, that all of these crazy people you've never met are interested in the books you own. It's a mad, mad world. Nice cookbook collection by the way.

I know about that culling thing - the first time or two, a fair amount went to the library sale, but now I'm back to way more books coming in than going out... And in that spirit, may I suggest that the next time you're visiting Indiana, you stop by Hyde Brothers Used Books in Fort Wayne? Not much in the needlearts section when I was there in December, but there was a huge selection of cookbooks. If you're missing any of your childhood favorites, you're likely to find a copy there.

Looking through your book collection on line is fun! As you are the primary reason I grew to like reading, and you have supplied a good many of the books in my collection, it amazes me to see where our tastes overlap as well as where they diverge. Cool site. Sorry we didn't have a chance to look at it together over Christmas break!

A knitting graduate student in English thanks you a thousand times over for linking to your LibraryThing catalogue. I'm alwys looking for a good recommendation, and your "beloved" tags look like a lovely place to search out some new ones (and to see some old friends). Now, if only I could get someone to hold up the books and turn the pages for me as I knit, all would be bliss.

I love LibraryThing! I've only got 123 books in so far, so I've barely started, but so far we share...exactly 0 books. I did order a scanner, though, so hopefully I'll be able to get the bulk of my library in soon, though. Then maybe we'll have a few books in common--at least some knitting books?

Only one Moosewood, and no King Arthur Flour books? And you went to school in Boston? Tut, tut, tut. And Fanny only in the facsimile? I have no less than 3 editions of Fanny, including the facsimile, 1951, and 1980-ish.....all useful, the older ones more so than the 1980s one.

Cook much? LOL!

Ok, I also ruthlessly cull, sell on ebay, and donate to the local library book drive, and I have no less than 7 bookcases full of books. Cooking gets a whole bookcase. 8-) Librarything looks like another addictive behavior to get into.

Actually, I found you at LibraryThing.com awhile ago "Oh, look, it's Franklin! And he has OMIGOD! 561 books in his library!" That was at least a month ago, and you have added nearly a hundred books since then.

I use the librarything link in my sidebar to list the books I have read in the current year. It was the best, least-work-required way to accomplish that.

Since I started working in a library, I buy far fewer books -- everything I want to read is available for free! The few books I do buy tend to sit on the TBR pile because there is no deadline to read them.

Am I to believe that you share your birthday with the late great Robert Burns ? (Scottish Poet whose birthday is January 25th) How wonderful.America should declare this a holiday and have Franklin Suppers, reading passages of Dolores adventures, and toasting the Yarn.Sorry - I've had too much Haggis - hope yours was just as wonderful and btw the little note from your Mum made me cry (I'm a mummy too)

Franklin, I love you. Sometimes I think my purpose in life is to read. One of the hardest things I ever had to do was sell about 2,000 paperbacks (for slightly more than a pittance each) at Powell's when we hit hard times back in the mid-80's - all but my nearest and dearest. Things are some better, so I'm building back up, but it's very slow, since things aren't that good. (Besides, there's yarn and all. [g]) But some good friends are helping, and I think I'm up to oh, 500-600 or so, maybe. Not nearly enough! And I'll never remember/find many I used to have and love. But luckily, Powell's still trades. (I categorize books as good once - those get traded; read a few times, then trade; then keeper.) Plus there's half.com and Amazon partners, the Gutenberg Project and other places for ebooks, and friends. Halllujah!

I aspire to my friend Lois's achievement. When she and her husband moved a few years ago, she had a literal ton of books. They took up one whole moving van!

Re Dolores - are you sure it was Catullus? At first I read it as Caligula. ;)

You are quite possibly the most delightful man I have never met. Your friends are very fortunate to know you!

3 things: 1) belated birthday greetings and I am glad you are happy to be alive; 2) I share your book-loving tendencies: my "beloveds" are mostly children's titles, and I love most things (books, etc.) British; and 3) I am addicted to Delores and I can't get enough of her! So special thanks for this posting.

How nice that Fannie Merrit Farmer popped up first! I tortured my family with many recipes out of that book when I was little....it was the only cookbook we owned! I had a peek at your beloved books-how nice to see Laura Ingalls Wilder!

I notice the ash on Dolores' ciggie is rather long & hovering dangerously close to the bowl of guacomole.If you find ash in your dip, do you graciously, surreptitiously pick it out & act like it wasn't there or do you give D hell for her less than hygienic food preparation?

Franklin, I believe we must be related, however distant. I too have ga-ma-zillion tons of books. The fact is, last time I moved, I had three cartons of books to every one of anything else. We counted almost 25 large bozes along with several small ones (this not including first editions, foriegn pre-1900, or domestic pre-1900 those rode in the car with me). I'm glad you had an excellent birthday and if I had your address I beleive I would send you a book!

What a great project to undertake - and I enjoyed your tagging!Did you use a barcode reader for the raw data entry or do it manually? I've been contemplating LibraryThing for a while, but haven't taken the plunge. (As a librarian and mother of two small children we have a lot of books in the house!)

Oh my, I see you have a few books by one of my favorite authors, Booth Tarkington. I'm a Hoosier (native of Indianapolis), so I had always heard of him as a kid, natch. It wasn't until a few years ago I read The Magnificent Ambersons, now in my top 5 favorite books. I haven't read Alice Adams because I buy them as I see them in used book stores when visiting Indy. But I have Seventeen, The Young Mrs. Greeley and The Gentleman from Indiana. I never have a copy of The Magnificent Ambersons, because immediately after I buy a copy I hand it out to a friend.

Wonderful collection! I used to read approx. a book a week until I learned to knit a year ago. I think I read 3 books last year. One was the Devil Wears Prada, and one was a chick lit book about knitting (Knitting Under the Influence). What is happening to my brain cells?!

I am currently re-buying many of the books I owned; much of my library is still at the home I shared with an ex-girlfriend. When I am ready, I'll argue with her for the remaining ones. Not that she wants to keep them––their in boxes with HER books (her apartment is being renovated) and she has a problem about going through them to give e mine. Grrrr.

I am currently re-buying many of the books I owned; much of my library is still at the home I shared with an ex-girlfriend. When I am ready, I'll argue with her for the remaining ones. Not that she wants to keep them––their in boxes with HER books (her apartment is being renovated) and she has a problem about going through them to give e mine. Grrrr.

Thank you, Franklin, forgiving me the chance to indulge one of my greatest pleasures in life, going through other people's bookshelves (I can't be the only person who, when reading interviews with the Famous & Literate, flips the newspaper sideways to see if I recognise any of the books on the shelves they are inevitably pictured in front of).

I may need frisking however - we seem to have remarkably similar tastes. (Mapp and Lucia I might have predicted - but not necessarily The Doll's House).

My "beloved" list and your "beloved" list ... have so much in common. The Woolf, the Thurber, the Mary Poppins. I could go on.:-) Thanks for this link, thanks for sharing your bookshelves, too. And Happy Birthday, belatedly!

Belated birthday wishes.My DH (a Radio Shack devotee and Engineer who only recently gave up a pocket protector) got a bar code reader and a program that sucks off all the Library of Congress cataloging info for our books. So far he's only entered HIS... SF mostly.

I read about library thing on your blog and signed up... then went through the first four shelves of my library entering in books... and then I realized that I was an old librarian obviously trapped in a 24 year old's body when I find cataloging my books while drinking tea exhilarating. What am I to do? I guess put on another spot of tea and go knit on my socks some more while reading some socialogical art history articles. Cheers!

Copyright and Posting Notice

All original content of this blog, both words and images, is held in copyright by F. Habit. Use of any kind, in any medium, for any reason without express, prior written consent is prohibited.

Permission is not granted for the posting of any content from this site to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, or any other Web site.

Please do not provide links to any product, service, organization or cause when leaving comments unless directly related to the topic of the post. Unsolicited advertising will be deleted and repeat offenders will be blocked.

When in doubt, please ask. I'm not mean, I'm just committed to preserving the quality of experience for my readers.